Mending Wendy
by joolay
Summary: Wendy is convinced that band camp is a waste of time, until she meets three strangers who will change her outlook on camp forever. PG-13 for mild language R
1. So Close So Soon

I begged my dad to let me stay home. There was no way on earth he was going to get me to spend four whole weeks at band camp with no one I knew except for my clarinet. There was nothing he could do to get me to go, nothing.

I can't believe he got me to do it.

That was my first thought and the thought that would swim in my head for the next three hours that I would spend on that stinky, smelly cramped bus filled with hyper teenagers and sing-alongs.

I sat in the seat near the front clutching my pillow and trying to drown out the constant laughter with my CD player. I watched the trees go by one by one, as if they were all bidding me farewell. After a while the trees became cars and I got bored with my window and the buildings. They were all the same.

I looked across the isle to the seat next to me. A girl who looked about my age had a notebook in her lap, with a pen in her hand moving back and forth on the paper so fast it looked like a black blur. I paused my music and leaned across in my seat. "What are you doing?"

She jumped and her pen had made a zig-zagged line on her paper. She stared at it, then looked at me and sighed. "I was writing a story." I started to apologize for the mess I caused but she held a hand out and smiled genuinely. "Don't worry about it. This is just the rough draft."

She had brown wavy hair that fell way past her shoulders and at the moment she had it spilling down her the front of her white shirt like coffee. There were a few oddball braids here and there, and there was a single blue streak near her face. I asked her name.

"Oh, sorry, I'm Pru. I uh, play the clarinet." She indicated the black case in the floor. My eyes lit up and I bounced a bit in my seat.

"Me clarinet too! I mean," I laughed, "I play the clarinet too." I pointed at my case that was next to me in the seat. It was decorated with my favorite music bands and where me and my friends had scribbled on it with white gel pen. We had all wrote our names and random phrases. Pru leaned over and narrowed her eyes at where I had wrote something crude about my band director.

"Oh, don't worry about that." I pushed it aside. "So," I began, making myself comfortable in my seat, "are you excited about band camp?" I put an emphasis on band camp as if it were a bad word.

"Yes. I love band." She answered simply. I stared at her open-mouthed.

"But, but- band camp! Have you ever seen American Pie?"

"Have you ever been to an actual band camp?" She asked sharply. I shook my head. "Then don't label it yet. Band camp is so much more than what the average movie show it to be, and how it is said to be 'nerdy' and 'geeky' and all those things. It's...I mean," She looked up towards the roof of the bus, "extraordinary. I've had all my good memories here. I've been to this camp tons of times. You'll love it, I swear. If not, you can have all my Colgate Orange-Crush toothpaste." I stared at her. "I....love Colgate Orange-Crush toothpaste." I nodded and put on a fake look of 'of course, it's great'.

I suddenly realized she was looking out her window with her face pressed to the glass. Her nose was squished. "We're here!" She said, her voice sounding nasally. I sat up on my knees in my seat to see out her window. There it was.

We rolled onto a gravel driveway, leaving the busy highway and my old self. Little did I know I would be coming back a whole new person.

---

"Welcome to Blaremount. I hope you all enjoyed the bus ride over here." All the kids groaned and there was mumbling coming from every mouth.

We were all in a football stadium, situated on the bleachers listening to the camp lead counselor, Jordan. He was wearing a red t-shirt with white writing that read 'Blaremount' on the front and 'Band Camp' on the back. He was in his twenties and _hot_. I don't think I ever heard a word he said that day during orientation.

--

After it was over, we were dismissed to walk up the hill to our "dorms". It was a large brick building that was stacked high with many levels and balconies. I stood with Pru at the bottom of the hill looking up.

"Wow. That's .._wow_." I mumbled stupidly, my head laid back as far as it would go. Pru grabbed my arm and started walking. "Come on. We have to get the good dorm. I've had it every year. I hope Brey is saving me a bunk." She stopped walking and turned to stare at me. "Um, it's okay, you can share mine."

--

Brey was the craziest girl I had ever met. She was a mix between random, bi-polar, hilarious, and confused. I loved her to death the first moment I met her.

"Yay-ah! You brought the orange-crush toothpaste! I hope you know you'll be wearing it when you wake up." Brey was hanging off her bunk upside down, watching Pru unpack her stuff. Pru stuck out her tongue and went back to unpacking.

I, however, had not even begun to unpack. I was sitting beside Pru on 'our' bunk and looking around the room.

Pru did a roll and slid off her bunk, then ran and jumped onto our bed, making Pru and I bob up and down a bit. "Kiddo, you seem uptight." Brey grabbed up my red hair in her hands and began playing with it.

"No, Brey. You are not doing your famous cornrows." Pru said loudly, and tried to push Brey off the bed. But Brey laughed and anchored herself to the covers. "You have to ask nicely!" Brey laughed. She had the most contagious laugh I've ever heard.

Somehow we all ended up under the covers together talking about all the important things in life: boys, why you shouldn't sleep in eyeliner because you'll have rings under your eyes, why fresh cut grass smells the way it does, and why sunsets are so sad.

I don't know how we all fit on the same bunk, but we did, and I was glad. I didn't mind Brey's legs across my stomach or Pru's foot on my head.

"Wendy," Pru asked, "what was your first kiss like?"

I shifted under the covers a bit and thought about it. "Well I don't remember. I was six or seven, and it was under the mistletoe at my family's Christmas dinner. I think it was my cousin." I squinted my eyes as I thought about how weird that sounded. There was silence.

"Ew."

"What was yours like, Brey?" Pru asked, "I don't think you've ever told me."

I could feel Pru's cheeks rise against my arm and I knew she was smiling. "It was last year, in the rain and I can still remember what his lips felt like. It was a Sunday morning and I was standing under the awning of my school and..he pulled me out in the rain and kissed me." She broke the silence and started making kissy noises with her mouth. I laughed.

"Brey- you ruined your own moment!" I slapped her on the stomach.

It was quiet for a while as we all enjoyed each other's company. Then I realized none of us had asked Pru yet. And I think Pru knew it, but she wasn't about to say anything. I decided not to being it up.

--

I opened my eyes. I forgot where I was and found myself laying with two girls on a tiny bunk bed. I screamed and jumped up to my feet, hitting my head on the ceiling. It seemed I had forgot it was the top bunk, too. My screaming woke up Brey and Pru, then I tripped on somebody's leg and fell off the side of the bed onto the floor. It thumped.

"What's going on? What was that I just heard?" Pru asked, rubbing her eyes. Brey had been sitting up but she laid back down and pulled the covers back over her.

"Nothing. Wendy fell off the bed. Go back to sleep."

"Nah, we have to get up anyway."

I lay on the floor moaning and feeling like the biggest idiot in the world. "Get up, Skittish." Pru jumped onto the floor and tried to hoist me up onto my feet. I wouldn't budge so she grabbed a pillow and started whacking me with it.

"Okay I'm up I'm up!" I groaned and slowly stood up, stretching.

"Next time you guys hear me screaming, please grab one of my appendages so I won't break my face again."

---


	2. First Day

Dear diary,"Brey and Pru showed me what it was like to have friends that you hug and never want to let go of."

----

The three of us had to brush our teeth in the main girl's bathroom. ( That was a trip. It took almost ten minutes just to get to a sink because it was so crowded. There were blow-dryers going and girls yelling over the noise to their friends. So I skipped brushing my teeth and waited in the dorm room for Brey and Pru to get back. )

Brey, Pru and I, still in our pajamas, headed downstairs to the lobby where Jordan had told us to meet the day of orientation. It didn't matter that we were still in our sleeping clothes; everyone else was too. Pru had on a pair of boy's boxers and a sweat shirt. She would close her eyes for a second before I'd tell her to wake up. She insisted she was just resting, but soon I would hear snoring; I had never know anyone who could sleep standing up before.

Jordan stood in the middle of the lobby with everyone crowding around him so that they could see better. The three of us had been pushed to the back and Brey threatened to beat everyone out of our way with her color guard flag.

"Come on," she insisted, "all I'd have to do is give one a little tap and they'd all go down like dominoes."

"Every morning for breakfast, you will report to the dining hall, get your food, then you may take it wherever you want to eat it; just _not _any where that students are not allowed. Right, Trip?" Jordan asked loudly. A boy with shaggy black hair in flannel red pajama pants held up his drum stick acknowledging that he had heard. Brey and Pru laughed but I didn't because I hadn't been here before and didn't know the inside joke.

Jordan continued. "You have until eight thirty to eat your food, then you have to report back to your dorm rooms for inspection by your camp counselor. I'll be assigning them today to each instrument section. From there, I'll let them tell you what to do next. Eventually at the end of the day, say around six forty-five, the whole band will get together for practice. And..I think that's it." Jordan looked towards a counselor holding a notepad and she nodded. "Okay. Go get your breakfast then and have a good first day of camp."

There was a sudden commotion as kids all fought to get to the door first. But Pru, being the band camp expertise that she is, grabbed my arm to stop me.

"It's better to stand back and let them go ahead, otherwise you'll end up getting stepped on or maimed. Want to see my battle wounds?" She raised her sweat shirt up and revealed a white scar on her stomach.

"Sorry again about that, kiddo." Brey stated nervously, backing away. "I didn't know it still bothered you. I didn't know my flag had a mind of its own! I promise!"

"Well isn't it a bit of a coincidence that that day you had been mad at me because you found out Trip liked me?" Pru pulled her shirt back down and put her hands on her hips.

"Trip liked you? Really?" Brey asked with a false look of surprise on her face. "How come you never told me?"

"My bad." Pru said, grabbing my arm and leading me away.

----

"I hope they're still serving banana waffles." Pru whined, standing up on her tippy toes to try and see over the line. We were at the very back. There had to be over five hundred kids. The kid in front of me was a bit on the heavy side, and he stepped on my toe. My eyes started to water from the pain.

"Oh sweetie, don't worry, I'm sure there will be some left." Pru stroked my hair. I stared at her through blurry eyes.

"Have you seen Keetan yet? What if she didn't come this year?" Brey asked. "I mean, last year she told us that band camp was starting to lose its luster." Pru shook her head and held up a finger.

"Yes I remember but didn't she also say that her grandma makes her come every year? And oh my gosh! Ahh I think I see her! Keetan, we're over here!" Pru started jumping up and down and waving her arms. The girl she was yelling at turned around and I stared at her.

She had a unibrow and had orange juice dribbling down her chins.

"Oh- you're _not _Keetan! You can go back to your orange juice!" The girl shrugged and walked away. Pru and Brey laughed, and I couldn't help but laugh too.

"Don't make fun. Keetan probably went through puberty since last year and has developed facial hair and extra chins." Brey stated matter-of-factly, nodding.

"I don't know about the facial hair, but you can't blame me for having spare chins, you never know when one will go out on ya." Said a voice from behind us. We all turned around. It was Keetan.

"Ahhh!" Pru and Brey both screamed and went at her for a hug at the same time. In result, they bonked heads. It sounded like two coconuts hitting each other.

"One at a time now, girls. Hugging is risky business." Keetan gave each girl a hug then started talking about her summer and how everyone was doing. My mind began to wander, and soon I found myself looking into a pair of large eyes almost hidden by a mop of black hair. One was blue, and the other was brown.

"Hey, I've been asking you if you are going to use that syrup any time soon, but all you've done is stare at me. Hellooo? Is there someone in there?" He shook me. It was Trip. I blinked really hard and came back to reality. Was I holding syrup? I looked and there it was in my hand. Why was I holding syrup?

"Sure, syrup's all yours." I handed it to him. He smiled, said thanks, and walked away.

"Man, we were starting to worry about you. You had been pouring syrup onto your waffle for almost five minutes. At first we made a point that maybe you just like syrup. What were you doing, Wendy?"

I looked and we must have made it to the front of the line because I was beside a counter, and on that counter was a plate with a single waffle on it. Only you couldn't tell it was a waffle because it was just a plate of syrup-soup. I opened and closed my mouth, not sure what to say. "Uh..buh...erm.."

"Great, now she's talking to herself. Anyway, Wendy, this is Keetan Pripson. She's been our friend since the first day of camp here. She plays the tuba." Pru introduced her to me and I shook Keetan's hand. Keetan was almost model-like. She was probably about six feet tall and skinny as a bean pole.

"Nice to make your acquaintance, Wendy."

"And it's nice to see you have two eyebrows." I replied.


	3. Prank

Dear Diary, "Today I made a fool out of myself, even more than usual. I made friends with a girl named Keetan, and she had two eyebrows. Thank God."

---

After breakfast it was time to head back to our dorms. We said goodbye to Keetan ( she was in a different section of the building than us ) but we would see her later for full band practice. When we got to our dorm, there was a sign posted on the door, and we all crowded around it to read it. It had each of our names on it saying what counselor we had and where to go to meet them.

_Pru Klein: Clarinet Section, Hannah Mayes...report to the lobby_

_Wendy Laylard: Clarinet Section, Hannah Mayes...report to the lobby_

_Brey Studdard: Colorguard Section, Captain Josh Myers...report to football field_

And then it listed the other girl's names that were in our dorm with us. I smiled at Brey because we would be together and I was so thankful to be a clarinet at the moment. "We'll walk down there together." Pru stated happily, putting an arm around me.

"Naw, I was planning on leaving you and getting lost in the building because I don't know my way around here. I don't need you." I joked.

"You guys, are you oblivious? Don't you see who my captain is?" Brey pointed at the sign and stared at us like we were idiots. We read the name.

"Dude, it's a dude." Pru said, her mouth open wide.

"You mean you find it weird that a guy does color guard?" I asked.

"Yeah, he must be gay or something. I hope he isn't hot." Brey leaned against the door and sighed.

"Oh my gosh, there are like three guys on my school's color guard team. They're really good too. This Josh dude must be as well, if he's the captain." I grabbed Pru's hand. "Come on, let's head down there."

"No, wait. We don't have to be there for a while, right? We have at least thirty minutes. What do you want to do?" Pru made me let go of her hand.

"Let's play a prank on Tabatha." Brey insisted, rubbing her hands together as if she were planning a terrible deed. I looked from Brey to Pru.

"Who's-"

"I knew you'd ask. She used to be our best friend, until she crossed over to the _dark side_." Brey wiggled her fingers at me and made 'whooo' sounds. I backed away.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, she used to be cool like us. In that I mean she used to not care what people thought and she was hilarious and fun to be around. Then she started hanging out with the preppies. We've hated her ever since; she basically became a traitor and traded us in for better friends. I don't know about you, but I think the preppies are all vegetables. They don't have any personalities and they all look the same." By the time she said the last sentence, her eyes had narrowed into almost nothing.

"Okay, so what do you want to do to her? I like pranks."

"Well, Wendy..I hope you like guinea pigs, because you're about to become ours."

---

Brey had a 'brilliant' idea. Because Tabatha had never met me, she wouldn't know I had been sent by Pru and Brey. I was supposed to go to her dorm, knock on the door, and be a bearer of bad news. I was going to say I was a camp counselor and that I had been sent by Jordan. The lie was Tabatha's mom had called and said her grandfather had died, and to pack up her things because they would be flying over seas to the funeral. ( He lived in Jamaica. )

I knocked on the door. I was wearing a lanyard key chain that had a whistle on it and a sun visor. I think Pru and Brey did a good job making me look like a counselor. It was also lucky that I looked older than my age. Most of the time I hated that, but right now there was a pro to it.

A girl opened the door. I wasn't sure if she was Tabatha or not, so I cleared my throat and began my lie. "Are you Tabatha Creoles?" The girl stared at me like I was scum, and nodded.

"Yes, that would be me." She put her hands on her hips and looked me up and down. I hated her already and it made it so much easier to lie to her face.

"Sweet heart, I'm..Rhonda the trumpet captain and I've been sent here by Jordan. Sweetie, your mom called."

"And..?" Tabatha held her hands up waiting.

"Honey cake, your grandpa passed away in his sleep yesterday."

I didn't know if had worked or if she believed me because for a minute she just stood there. Then her eyes began to water.

"Pappy? No.." She started to cry. Suddenly I felt a weight being dropped on my shoulders. I couldn't do this: I thought about how much I loved my own grandfather.

"Look," I started, holding out a hand to her, "I'm sorry. I can't do this. Your grandpa is still alive." I couldn't believe what I was saying! "It was just a prank, I'm just an actor."

She stopped sobbing. "I am too, bitch." An evilsmile crossed her face. "I've been able to make myself cry since I was four years old. I know Rhonda, and you aren't her. Did Pru and Brey send you?"

I stood baffled. "Well.."

"Those whores are going down."

What had I done?

---


	4. Hannah

I had turned and ran down the hall so scared, not believing what I had just done. My eyes were half-way shut trying to keep tears back, and I must not have seen it coming but I ran headfirst into something and fell backwards onto the floor. I opened my eyes and stared at Trip who was on the floor as well rubbing his bottom.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry! How's your butt?..I mean are you okay?" I fumbled with my words, crawling towards him. He apparently didn't want me anywhere near him, as if I brought bad luck or something, because he scooted away.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it." He groaned. I felt my face burning. I must have been blushing. I was still wearing the lanyard and sun visor. I felt so stupid.

"It's just I was..well Tabatha..I mean..well, sorry." I tried to stand up, but he stood up first and held a hand out to me. I hesitated, then put my hand in his and he pulled me to my feet.

"Did you just say something about Tabatha? Tabatha Creoles?"

I wrung my hands. "Yes." He stared at me.

"What did she do to you? Tell me."

I began to wring my hands so much they became sore. I looked away, pretending to look down the hall for something, then pointed at an invisible object. "Oh I see my friend bye!" I stupidly turned on my heel and took off in the other direction. I ran without looking back to my dorm, where Brey and Pru would be waiting patiently to hear the story. I was almost as afraid of them at the moment as I was Tabatha. I even considered hiding in a janitor's closet that I passed on my way down the hall, but I took a deep breath and kept going.

I stopped at the door trying to catch my breath. I felt a catch in my side and I moaned and was bent over when the door open.

"Wendy! You've been gone forever. Come inside." Before I even had time to get a word in, Pru grabbed my arm and yanked me inside. Everything was happening so fast.

"I can't believe you actually did it! You're crazy! You are officially my hero." Brey bowed dramatically, one hand behind her back.

"But-"

"What did she say? Did she bawl her eyes out?" Pru had her hand on my arm. I wanted to pull away and leave the room to go find that janitor's closet, but it seemed like my shoes were filled with cement.

My head was telling me to tell the truth, but my mouth wasn't listening. It began moving and I can't even remember when I had started talking. "You should have seen her face. She cried like a baby, and she kept saying 'Pappy' a lot..and uh..she went and started packing her bags." I ended in a flourish and wiped some sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand.

There was a moment when they just looked at me. They didn't look very happy. Then Pru cleared her throat and took her hand of my arm.

"Well done, Wendy. I could have never done that- you were brave."

I licked my lips. "Yeah. Brave."

---

It was time to go meet our camp counselor.

_Pru Klein: Clarinet Section, Hannah Mayes…report to the lobby_

_Wendy Laylard: Clarinet Section, Hannah Mayes…report to the lobby_

_Brey Studdard: Colorguard Section, Captain Josh Myers…report to football field_

Brey parted with us when we got to the lobby because she had to make her way to the football field. We were to stay in the lobby. I held Pru's hand not wanting to get separated as more and more clarinet players filed into it. It began to get kind of loud in there. Girls were giggling and one girl was screaming because a key came off her clarinet.

I suddenly noticed a tiny girl with a red t shirt on that read "Blaremount" on like the one Jordan had had on the first day. She was short and frizzy-headed. Her curls cork-screwed out of her head every which way, and she had a mouthful of shiny metal braces.

"Hey clarys!" She announced suddenly, her smile quite whopping. She pushed her tiny self though the crowd of clarinets and made her way to a chair that was leaned up against the wall. She hoisted herself up. Me and Pru tried to muffle our laughter with our shirt sleeves.

"My name's Hannah and I am your section leader! I will also be your mama if I have to be. We're a TEAM!" She shouted suddenly, making us all jump two feet in the air. "What does Team stand for?" A few people raised their hands. "Yeah, you with the cornrows."

"Uh..it means people working together to achieve a goal."

Hannah laughed. "Ehhhh!" She made a buzzer sound. "Wrong! The clarinets have this really nifty acronym for it..that I made up myself." She raised the roof. Me and Pru were now snorting with laughter.

"Try everything and more! You must TRY, people! TRY TRY! Or I'll have to bust out a can on you're hineys. Let's say it together!"

"Try everything and more." We mumbled.

"Whoo! I don't know about you guys but I'm feelin crazy! Let's head outside and learn how to make the most out of our clarinets! File OUT! WHOO!" She jumped off the chair and scuttled out the door. We all exchanged confused looks with each other and followed far behind.


End file.
